#KickTush Tuesday: 9 Skinny Scoops of Laughter

Tushkateers, Devotees of Our Lady of Weight Loss, I have some incredibly good news for you! Especially for those of us who are not “gym bunnies!” Are you ready? Drum roll, please! Laughing 100 times is the equivalent to a ten-minute workout on the rowing machine or a fifteen minute workout on an exercise bike.

The Skinny Scoop on Laughter:

Laugher is made up of a series of short vowel-like sounds repeated every 210 milliseconds (one thousandth of a second). Laughter almost always occurs during a pause at the end of a phrase or at the end of a sentence. You either laugh in the “ho-ho-ho” style or the “ha-ha-ha” style, but your laughing mechanism won’t mix the two.

Humor and laughter are two different things, and up to 80 percent of laughter is not in response to a joke! Women laugh 126 percent more often than me. (You are not surprised, are you?) And there is evidence that laughter is medically beneficial.

While suffering from a collagen disease Norman Cousins checked into a hotel room and watched one funny movie after the next. He laughed (despite his gender)! Mr. Cousins found that ten minutes of really big laughs gave him two pain-free hours of sleep. And he also found that laughter, in time, cured his disease. How amazing is that?

Laughter makes us feel good both physiologically and psychologically.

Laughter:

Reduces levels of certain stress hormones

Reduces anxiety and tension.

Boosts the immune system by stimulating the thymus gland.

May lead to hiccuping but will dislodge mucus plugs from the respiratory tract! (How attractive!)

Gives you a full body, aerobic workout (works the diaphragm and abdominal, respiratory, facial and back muscles).

Creates bonding with your fellow humans. Robert Provine, a neuroscientist a thte University of Maryland, studied laugher for more than a decade. He found that we laugh thirty times more often in social situations than when hanging solo. Nothing better than a shared laugh!